Keith Ellison donor: ‘Israelis have to be bombed,’ only understand ‘resistance’

Campaign disclosure documents filed by Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota revealed that he received a contribution in 2017 from an official at the anti-Israel group American Muslims for Palestine, who openly encourages violence against the Jewish state.

Following Ellison’s ascension in March 2017 to the deputy chairman position at the DNC, Taher Herzallah, AMP’s associate director of outreach and grassroots organizing, contributed $2,500 to Ellison.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, “Herzallah is best known as one of the ‘Irvine 11,’ a group of students who were sentenced to three years probation for actions taken to disrupt a 2010 speech by then-Israeli ambassador Michael Oren.”

Several weeks prior to making his contribution to Ellison, Herzallah was arrested for causing a disruption during confirmation hearings for U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Herzallah has publicly campaigned for the use of violence to destroy Israel, claiming “the only language that the state of Israel understands is that of resistance” and proposing “an Islamic state” to “use violent means to resist occupation.”

“Israelis have to be bombed, they are a threat to the legitimacy of Palestine, and it is wrong to maintain the State of Israel,” Herzallah said in 2014, according to the Anti-Defamation League. “It is an illegitimate creation born from colonialism and racism.”

Herzallah contends that the Palestinians have no future “as long as Zionism exists.”

Herzallah oversees AMP’s campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine, the leading activist group for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions effort aimed at bringing economic destruction to Israel.

Ellison supported the BDS movement until he began campaigning last year for the chairmanship of the DNC. During his bid for the top position, which he lost, Ellison was repeatedly criticized for his previous statements regarding Israel and his associations with radical groups such as Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood-founded Muslim American Society.

During his campaign, Ellison attempted to soften his position on Israel.

“I have long supported a two-state solution and a democratic and secure state for the Jewish people, with a democratic and viable Palestinian state side-by-side in peace and dignity,” Ellison said at the time. “I don’t believe boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel helps us achieve that goal. I supported the Democratic Platform, which embraces this position.”